The partnership behind The HueHub, South Florida’s most ambitious Live Local Act project, has devolved into litigation, with Laura Tauber accusing Pablo Castro of cutting her out of the landmark West Little River development, The Real Deal has learned.
Tauber, a longtime South Florida developer and investor, sued Castro, a Spanish developer and newcomer to South Florida real estate, alleging he froze her out of the project, reneging on his promises to share profits with her as a partner. Tauber sued Castro, as well as entities The HueHub and Digital Housing Platform, both managed by Castro, in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.
The six-count complaint was filed Friday, two days after HueHub promotional materials proliferated, marking the project’s advancement with the start of demolition at the 12-acre site.
The $880 million HueHub is planned for more than 4,000 fully furnished apartments in seven 35-story towers at 8395 Northwest 27th Avenue in unincorporated Miami-Dade County.
It’s the largest known South Florida project under the Live Local Act, a Florida law that allows developers to build much bigger than a site’s zoning permits if they designate at least 40 percent of units for households earning no more than 120 percent of the area median income. All HueHub units will be for tenants earning up to 120 percent of the AMI.
According to Tauber’s complaint, HueHub actually will be a much larger $1.32 billion development, with a second phase planned for 2,000 more units.
Plans for HueHub were first revealed in 2024, when a project application was filed. The project received final approval last summer. It will include retail and dining, as well as community spaces such as a garden, library and a learning center to help students with homework and adults with continuing education.
Tauber has a “binding oral agreement” with Castro to partner on the project and receive a share of future profits. He sought her out as his local development partner in 2023, according to the complaint.
Castro told her he sold his company in Spain for a “substantial sum,” and would pony up the capital, but he needed Tauber to contribute local know-how, “an area in which Castro admittedly had no prior experience,” according to the suit.
After HueHub received local approvals and union contracts, Castro squeezed her out of the project, including any promised equity, the suit alleges.
Tauber “devoted herself” to HueHub for nearly three years without receiving a “penny,” motivated by its potential social impact, under the understanding she would be compensated after the project scored approval and financing and construction started, the complaint says.
Among other things, she worked with land-use counsel, county staff and architects; led community engagement efforts; attended meetings with potential investors; and negotiated a master lease for a 512-unit building with a senior housing operator, the lawsuit alleges.
“During that tenure, [Castro] continually emphasized and acknowledged our partnership and my pivotal role as ‘local developer’ and ‘partner’ in all our marketing materials, press releases and scores of online and print publications locally and nationally,” Tauber said in a statement.
Castro didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
Castro is the same person as Pau Castro Sáez, who at one point earned a reputation as Spain’s biggest developer, The Real Deal revealed in a 2024 profile of the HueHub developers.
In 2007, he and a partner founded Barcelona-based Grupo Corp., expanding it over the years to become a top landowner and developer in the Barcelona area and partnering in 2019 with Spain’s Grifols family, owners of the Grifols pharmaceutical conglomerate, to develop thousands of apartments in Spain, according to reports from news publications in Spain.
Castro exited Grupo Corp. about two years ago.
Tauber co-founded Bay Harbor Islands-based Taubco with her husband, Irwin Tauber, in the late 1990s. It developed commercial plazas in South Florida, including Keystone Plaza, Biscayne Commons and the nearby Arena Shops building in North Miami Beach, as well as the Causeway Square office and retail building in North Miami.
According to the complaint, Tauber was to receive equity in HueHub as a non-cash investment partner, 50 percent of property management income shared with Castro, 1 percent asset management fee, 10 percent of the developer fee and $50,000 monthly for her work in the past three years.
At first, Castro “unilaterally” eliminated her Class D equity shares and said he would provide her with shares in “another fashion,” but then “continued to play the delay game,” the complaint says.
After he denied she had contributed to the project and said she’s only entitled to $50,000 monthly, Tauber and her attorney confronted him in a meeting. Subsequently, he retaliated by cutting off her access to company email accounts and internal records and then scrubbed mentions of her from HueHub’s website, according to the complaint.
“It is extremely unfortunate and disappointing that at the moment our long-envisioned plan is about to become reality, he denies our partnership and has methodically pushed me aside,” Tauber said in her statement.